Tag Archives: mid city piano teacher

There is a recipe to high achievement. This recipe can apply to any practice: sports, music, medicine, artisanship, meditation…you get the idea.

Interest

Talent

Consistent hard work for a long period of time

Backing or support

You need all four on the road to mastery. If one ingredient is missing from the recipe, then the dish falters. It’s edible, but it’s not amazing. The other ingredients need to compensate to make up for the lack of the one. But the dish is incredible with all four.

I can speak from my personal experience as a serious piano student and teacher. As a student, I had all four ingredients for a very long time until ingredient #1 wavered. I was burnt out from years of pressure and personal baggage that had no direct relationship to piano. So, I relied on #’s 2-4 to keep me going. #3 started to stagger. In the end, it all came back to that missing #1. I crumbled. So, I took a break to refresh my stores of inspiration. I went through a lot of personal reflection and therapy to figure out why I lost #1. But that’s my own unique story.

Most of my students begin with a strong #1 and #4. Talent, our infamous ingredient, is usually harder to come by, but it’s not so important when you’re just curious. However, even rarer to find in students than #2 is #3, interestingly. Perhaps the beginning student’s expectations are high and optimistic. Perhaps the student-parent team underestimates how much work it’ll really require because it’s supposed to be a fun extracurricular. In reality, you have to get your hands dirty to knead that dough. It’s messy a lot of times, it’s tiring, and it takes a lot of patience. But like the other ingredients, you need it to make that delicious dish. You need more of it than you realize.

The fourth ingredient, a strong network of support, is also essential. It’s like a chef relying on farmers and food producers to provide the fresh ingredients, as well as the kitchen and waitstaff, cleaning crew, food haulers, and restaurant owners to run the whole ship. Like a chef, a student cannot go at it alone. A young piano student will rely on his or her parent or family member to not only pay for expenses and get to the lesson every week, but also to reinforce a solid practicing routine, get exposure to the arts, and be a sounding board. There is also the teacher, who serves as a mentor, source of wisdom, and psychologist for the student. You really need a strong team effort, day in and day out. In short, it takes a lot of resources to succeed.

Most people obsess about ingredient #2. Most people believe that talent, above all, is what carries one through. This cannot be further from the truth. Oftentimes, those with a strong talent fail to recognize the importance of hard work and ultimately lose interest. They lean on their talent like a crutch. Talent is the initial boost and the final ingredient that allows one to soar in ability. Talent isn’t crucial to making a good dish, but it adds that extra special something. However, without any of the other ingredients, the dish is only half-baked. It’s a soggy apple pie with nice cinnamon on top.

I placed #1, pure interest, at the top of the recipe because it’s the ignition to the whole thing. You can’t start a fire without it. How do you make your children interested in piano lessons? You don’t. You expose them to music and anything that you think is wonderful, and you hope for the best. But you don’t shove interest down their throats. It’s difficult to explain where interest comes from in the first place. Perhaps it’s the product of a culmination of things, or perhaps it’s genetic. Perhaps they’re motivated by Grandpa’s piano playing or by that kid on 60 Minutes. It doesn’t really matter in the end. You either have it, or you don’t.

You don’t need to have all four ingredients to merely dabble at something. But you need three to be okay, and definitely all four to be astounding. Think about anyone who is known for something truly remarkable. I can guarantee you that nothing was missing in that recipe.